Rappers' legacies never really die if they leave the right things behind. One time rappers pass, their mixtapes, albums, and leaked material permit listeners to keep their memories live. For fans who all the same blast 2Pac or Biggie wherever they get, it's the music that allows them to resurrect the fallen legends and relive their glory days all over again.

This year, hip-hop lost A$AP Yams, the Jacka, Chinx, Pumpkinhead, and Sean Toll—all pivotal figures in their ain right who likely left behind tons of unreleased music. While A$AP Rocky has confirmed he's picking up where Yams left off and putting out his posthumous anthology, the more firsthand release is Chinx'south debut, Welcome to JFK , out Aug. xiv. The team behind the 31-twelvemonth-sometime rapper's first posthumous album has been on an emotional rollercoaster always since his murder on May 17 in Jamaica, Queens. It has been hard for Lionel Pickens' friends, family unit, and musical collaborators to recover from their loss, but they've finally grown comfortable enough to drop the project his fans wanted to hear.

"For the past two months, that'south exactly what I've been doing," says Doug "Biggs" Ellison, Chinx'southward director and executive producer of Welcome to JFK. "I literally went from planning an album, to planning a funeral, and then got right back to finishing upwardly this anthology. Information technology kind of helped me through the grieving process considering I had something to do every twenty-four hour period. So between his family, the wife, the kids, and this music, I've only been submerged in his presence and doing what he would desire me to do to make sure the legacy stays strong and live."

Biggs and Chinx were in talks about partnering up equally early every bit 2008 after Chinx served a four-year sentence at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, Due north.Y. Seven years ago, Chinx was still trying to get his proper name out at that place, recording constantly in Biggs' studio in Queens and working with the Riot Squad, which consisted of Bynoe, Cau2Gs, and the slain rapper Stack Bundles. Eventually, Chinx met French Montana through Bundles' friend Max B, and he became a member of the Coke Boys after he clicked with them musically.

Chinx's steady grind on the mixtape circuit paid off when "I'thou a Coke Boy" off  his 2012 mixtape Cocaine Riot two became a popular single. In one case Chinx saw the song bubble out of the hugger-mugger, he approached Biggs and asked him to officially manage him.

"I'm not the type of person that takes [on] a bunch of artists," Biggs says. "I really similar to arrive the trenches and figure out who they are and what they need. I recall that was what attracted him, the fact that I was accessible and I understood the business organisation."

Biggs came on every bit Chinx's correct hand when he was readying the release of his first retail EP, I'll Have It From Hither, in 2013. The v-track project, released through Anarchism Squad, NuSense Music Grouping, and Coke Boys, increased his profile as information technology showed he could make tricky street records, like "Feelings," for a larger audience. Chinx also removed the "Drugz" portion of his phase name for a cleaner image. After "Feelings" started to get plays on New York radio stations Hot 97 and Power 105.1, Sony Music Entertainment approached Chinx with a record bargain in January 2014, simply he opted to stay contained.

"With all the groundwork that nosotros had put in, the most important thing for him was evidently ownership," Biggs says. "I'm sure you know with all the deals everybody is offering these days, they're 360 deals. You lot walk away from the table with little or nothing. Nosotros didn't want to get on the characterization and be shelved."

After he turned down the Sony deal, Chinx went right back to piece of work on complimentary mixtapes, releasing his ii strongest projects to date: Cocaine Riot iv and Cocaine Riot v . These tapes showed his penchant for observational hood tales that pegged him as a rise star amid Young Thug, A$AP Ferg, and his mentor, French Montana.

He was but so humble and I wanted to prove him [the] right direction 'cause I know this game can suck you lot dry with the incorrect people. —French Montana

"I saw the talent before anything, and then, his vibe was and then ahead of time," says French. "He was just so humble and I wanted to show him [the] right direction 'cause I know this game can suck you lot dry with the incorrect people."

Towards the cease of 2014, Biggs was likewise in talks with eOne Music. He felt strongly about taking Chinx and his talents to the indie powerhouse after he learned that Gabrielle Peluso, former general managing director of Def Jam, was brought on by eOne's president, Alan Grunblatt. Off the strength of "Feelings," "Couple Niggas," and "Bodies," Peluso worked out a deal with Biggs that was finalized in Feb 2022 for the release of Chinx's debut, Welcome to JFK.

"Chinx simply has that thing where he walks into a room and you know he's a star," says Peluso. "He walks into a room [and] says hullo to everybody. Shakes their mitt. Makes every daughter feel like he's in dear with them, makes every guy feel like they could exist friends. I did the deal without hearing any new music because information technology didn't matter. I knew he knew how to make them."

eOne deputed several studio sessions in October through Feb for the making of JFK with Chinx's in-house producers who have adult his sound since the start of his Cocaine Riot serial. Backside roughly 85 percent of JFK 's production are Four Kings (Young Stokes and Blickie Bonfire), Amazin' Music Grouping (Lee on the Beats, Bkorn, Austin Powerz, Roc da Producer, Mae Northward Maejor, Jabarrie, Gold Boy, K-beatz, and Nathan Anthony ), and songwriter/singer/rapper MeetSims, who moved from Arkansas to New York so he could work with him one-on-one. Chinx and his team had ever been working on JFK in some capacity; probably equally early as when he first got the concept tatted on his tum . But after CR5, they started to set aside records for the project—the album'due south intro and the single, "Experimental" and "On Your Trunk," respectively.

Withal, Chinx didn't accept a complete anthology. Just days afterward going to the studio to finish upwards records for JFK, the fatal shooting that ended his life halted his album plans. After his funeral on May 26, everyone involved in Chinx's career had to come together and re-strategize the release of JFK —and figure out how to practice it the way Chinx would've wanted.

"Once we got by the funeral, nosotros sat dorsum down and we only readjusted," Peluso says. "Now that nosotros didn't have him, people were rushing me. I had outsiders [saying], 'You have to put the album out now.' I was similar, 'Y'all guys, I don't have a finished [anthology]. It's not washed right this second. Information technology'due south about done, but it's not fucking done.' I'chiliad not going to jeopardize the integrity of this projection because of pressure level."

With just about every fan and industry insider in hip-hop talking nearly Chinx's murder—from Rob and Khloé Kardashian to Meek Manufacturing plant and Jay Z—it would accept been easy to capitalize on the conversation and rush out his debut for high album sales. The biggest concur-upward for JFK was securing features before it was time to turn in the album. While songs with Rick Ross, Chris Chocolate-brown, and Meek Mill never came to fruition, JFK however boasts names such as Ty Dolla $ign, Jeremih, Lil Durk, Nipsey Hussle, and French.

On June 2, "On Your Trunk" featuring MeetSims was released as the single for JFK . Compared to the street bangers that raised Chinx's profile, this was the first time his fans got to hear the new management of his music. Produced by Lee on the Beats with boosted help from Bkorn, "On Your Body" is a radio-friendly offering that finds the pair spoiling the women they like with riches. The video paints Chinx as a family man and stars his wife, Janelli Pickens, and their children.

"When nosotros came out with 'On Your Body,' you lot can tell the response that we got from it," MeetSims says. "We knew people weren't expecting that. But information technology fits so right for him, and then it sounded perfect."

"We all wanted a radio unmarried for Chinx," Bkorn adds. "Before the song simply had 1 verse and a claw on it, [and] he was just going to the radio stations and playing that one record and telling them this is going to be the leading single off the album. He already knew the direction the album was going in."

After the album was up for pre-gild on iTunes on July 17, more teasers were made available for fans: "Yay," "How to Get Rich," and "Don't Heed Me." Each represents the range Chinx was trying to achieve, helping widen his fan base and bringing new ears to his music. It marks years of honing his craft to the level where he no longer would take been boxed in as a street rapper. Like "S.A.B.," y'all'll hear the streets relate to "Yay" and what will inevitably accept over the clubs. The piano-laden "How to Get Rich" comes directly from his fourth dimension on the block, where sharp introspective rhymes about getting your money up are taught through personal experiences. "Don't Heed Me" is a classic stunt canticle, only done in such a way that only Chinx could pull off.

"You know when a player comes into the League, they still developing," says Lee on the Beats, "and then they get to that signal where yous know they can practise no bad? Information technology was like at that point because most everything he did was adept. There were no disappointments."

The full general consensus is New York doesn't have a sound that's easily identifiable. The era of Dipset and G-Unit of measurement seems like ancient history in comparison to the eclectic tastes of the A$AP Mob and Azealia Banks. Chinx wanted to embody the Coke Boys style of hard-hitting beats and simple rhymes with the Anarchism Team's grittiness.

"I call up Chinx telling me a calendar week before he passed that he wanted me to listen to all the classic albums, like Jay'southward Reasonable Doubt , Wayne's Tha Carter Three. [Nas'] Illmatic ," Stokes says, who assisted in engineering the project with Blickie Blaze. "He wanted me to listen to all the archetype albums by the greatest and come up up with the best piece of work possible."

One of the album'due south highlights is "Far Rock," which features a new verse past Stack Bundles. Chinx wanted listeners to familiarize themselves with Stacks' contributions to New York hip-hop and pay homage to the Riot Team. He asked Skane, the founder of Desert Storm Records, and DJ Clue to give him permission to look through the vaults of their former creative person. Once he found some verses of Stacks' he liked, he sent them to Biggs to help put together a track that organically matched Stacks from the past with Chinx of 2015.

Blickie Bonfire was the producer behind the record, where he added excerpts of Chinx's uncle Norman Seabrook's speech at his funeral, Stack'south final interview with Yum Yum the Lensman at Quad Studios, and a Chinx interview with Thisis50's Jack Thriller. He originally had Jay Z's speech honoring Chinx during his Tidal B-Sides concert in May to complete the record, but was removed due to clearance issues.

Blaze recalls the night before Chinx's death that they ready up a studio session with Stokes for Chinx to hear the final product. While Chinx was able to hear all the songs he recorded for his album, the eerie part was he never got to hear this i. "We was both actually sitting here in the studio, waiting for Chinx to become hither," Blaze says. "But nobody knew where he went. He never came dwelling." The significance of "Far Rock" is a lot greater now: 2 of the neighborhood's finest forever immortalized through a song.

The anthology's closer, "Die Immature," sets the tone as the Coke Boys' argument for their fallen comrade. After MeetSims laid down a claw for the song, information technology was completed during Chinx'south last studio session, and verses by French and his brother Zack were added later. Through the creators who heard the song that evening, Chinx's poesy—and the line "I pray I be OK when I grow upwards a piddling bigger/If I don't, tell my babies daddy was a real nigga"—nearly prophesied what would inevitably be his untimely death. "I was at a lost for words," says Stokes subsequently he recorded his part. "I didn't know what to say to him subsequently that. He didn't want to talk afterwards that. It was done."

Blaze echoed something similar: "It was but crazy because when all this stuff happened, everyone was asking questions that couldn't be answered. He's not hither anymore. When that record played for everybody, [they were like], 'Oh, that'southward the answer to every question.'"

Chinx's absenteeism still resonates with the Coke Boys, and his contributions to the crew are yet missed. The Coke Boys desire to carry out his legacy past starting a charity for him in his name. "He was the backbone," Zack says. "That's what he really was. Me and him would keep everything together. He would always say, 'What yous impale, you eat. So yous gotta get out here and get to it.' I've learned a lot from my brother in different kinds of ways. He was everything.'

Welcome to JFK won't be Chinx'southward final album. Currently, there are talks of releasing a second anthology on his birthday (Dec. 4) that'll possibly be led past a single produced by Harry Fraud. Chinx's producers have approximately 20 or then unreleased records that could be pieced together for a third projection. MeetSims and Chinx even have their ain prepare of songs that could be packaged every bit CR half-dozen (Commemorative Riot ). French Montana, who is working on Mac & Cheese: The Album, confirms Chinx will be on his sophomore effort and promises additional collaborations with him and Zack on the way. There's a lot of Chinx's music tucked abroad. The question is whether his music volition be timeless enough to hold the attention of future rap fans.

"His legacy will always live through me," French says. "He was the next upwards. I wish he could have enjoyed it. We got a lot in shop for Chinx'southward legacy—music is merely the commencement, and then whenever you see me, you see Chinx. It'due south just sad how the streets don't want you to win, fifty-fifty when you're a humble dude out hither pointing people in the right direction. I got Chinx for life. He volition forever be the No. 1 Coke Male child."

Eric Diep is a writer living in New York. Follow him @E_Diep.